Mobile device usage will grow significantly over the next 5 years, according to a recent survey. Mobile data usage with grow by nearly 6 times in the next 5 years, and smartphone usage will more than double. This data shows that mobile website optimization will become more important as more mobile users join the fray.
Mobile Data Usage to Grow by Nearly 6X by 2019
The growth of mobile device usage on the Web will grow by 5.95 times from 3094 PB in 2014 to 18,397 PB in 2019, according to data provided by Ericsson (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Mobile Data Traffic Forecast 2011-2019
Source: Ericsson
Smartphone Subscriptions to Grow by 2.2X by 2019
Smartphone usage will more than double in the next 5 years, according to data provided by Ericsson. In 2014 Smartphone subscriptions were 2.59 billion. By 2019 smartphone subscriptions will top 5.6 billion, a factor of 2.2 (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Smartphone Subscriptions Forecast 2011-2019
Source: Ericsson
Mobile Web Site Performance Optimization Key
This data shows that our world will soon become much more interconnected and reliant on mobile devices. The percentage of mobile users browsing websites has grown with Wikimedia reporting over 35% mobile share in Feb. 2014. Looking at the logs of our own clients many are over 40% mobile browser share and rising. As more mobile users come online, and more websites present mobile-optimized sites, the percentage of mobile browsers and data will continue to increase. Our March Bandwidth Report showed that mobile sites incur a speed penalty of 50% over their desktop counterparts. These trends show that the need for mobile site speed will increase over time.
Further Reading
- Mobile Web Site Performance Penalty
- Mobile devices incur a 50% penalty in webpage load times versus their desktop counterparts. We explore the differences from a recent survey.
- Velocity NYC 2013 Highlights
- The first Velocity Web Performance conference held in New York City was chock full of interesting talks and hands-on workshops. One highlight was the importance of mobile performance, and the proper way to hide elements for mobile devices.